I recently watched a few PBS documentaries on various U.S. presidents.

It was a way to gear-up for Presidents' Day. I hate to go into the holiday unprepared. Nothing is more embarrassing than walking into a restaurant and being unable to answer a trivia question about John Quincy Adams.

It's amusing that we have a day to honor presidents, when half the people hate half of them most of the time.

I don't view the holiday as a commemoration of individuals, but the office as a whole, and the men and women who have collectively held the position.

I considered it a civic duty to watch these (not-too-recent) profiles, which included features on Hoover, Truman, LBJ, Nixon and Carter.

I learned quite a bit, but it was anticlimactic: All their presidencies turned out precisely the way they did the first time.

Stories about presidents, especially those who served many decades ago, lends a new perspective. It makes them seem almost human.

I've seen quite a few presidential documentaries, but few full-length films.

I would like to watch "Lincoln," a 2012 historical drama, but haven't done so yet. The film is based on a biography about Lincoln based on the life of Lincoln, portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis. Lewis didn't portray Lincoln in Lincoln's real life, nor in the biography, he just ... well, you know what I mean.

When it comes to heads of state, I prefer documentary to bio-pics, although I know not why. In fact, until this moment, I had never even thought about that.

Biographies about prominent historical figures can be fascinating, but it has a downside. Condensing a person's lifetime of achievements and failures into an hour or two requires a lot of, well, condensation.

(When I say "prominent historical figures," it's a way to differentiate from important people in history who are unknown.)

As more time passes, things get summarized further.

Eventually, we come to associate presidents with fewer than a half-dozen moments, events, decisions, catastrophes, triumphs or traits.

Heck, Franklin Roosevelt was president for 12 years, but it's common to unfairly boil down that administration to four things: Fireside chat; New Deal; Pearl Harbor; and polio.

It happens every time I play a game of presidential word association.

Nixon: Watergate.

Truman: Bomb.

Hoover: Depression.

Zachary Taylor: Who?

Dennis Volkert is features editor at the Sturgis Journal. Contact him at volkert@sturgisjournal.com.